Qantas deliberately hiding QF awards to QFF and pushing JQ seats instead?

[appaz]

Background: I dont fly Qantas much, in fact I'd avoid at all costs. Regardless, I'm a silver, and have lots of points. I also have AA and Alaskan points which I use to book QF J - if I have to fly them.

Looking at 4 Economy award seats in October for the family to return from Singapore to Perth. AA showing plenty of dates with 4 seats available.


Zero chance of finding these same seats on Qantas' website, literally just shows Jetstar ONLY. How is it that AA Advantage members with zero status can have better access to Qantas metal than QFF silver?

Here is all I see with a Qantas search. Seems really fishy, plenty of JQ space


I must admit, as someone who can been using points for premium travel from several carriers over many years. Qantas points have slowly but surely slipped to being the absolute worst. No chance I'd ever touch another QFF earning CC

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I cross referenced with BA Executive Club, they show no availability. So it matches QF’s. Wonder if the AA space is phantom?

 

[ausfox]

I have been looking widely for a couple of J classic rewards from Melbourne to any Asian country in September/October this year. The only options given are on Jetstar.

 

[ausfox]

I may need to give the WP request a try.

 

[appaz]

I have been looking widely for a couple of J classic rewards from Melbourne to any Asian country in September/October this year. The only options given are on Jetstar.

Its almost as if they make a lot more money off people wasting their points on JQ or even worse, not understanding what a Classic Award flight is and booking with points - which is the default offering. Very shady from Qantas, they continue to prove to be "The Stench of Australia"

 

[Doctore1003]

No way Qantas is being that sneaky.
AA is notorious for showing phantom availability.

 

[p--and--t]

Its almost as if they make a lot more money off people wasting their points on JQ or even worse, not understanding what a Classic Award flight is and booking with points - which is the default offering. Very shady from Qantas, they continue to prove to be "The Stench of Australia"

Conspiracy theory

 

[appaz]

No way Qantas is being that sneaky.
AA is notorious for showing phantom availability.

This is a lot of phantom availability

 

[robbo135]

Looking at 4 Economy award seats in October for the family to return from Singapore to Perth. AA showing plenty of dates with 4 seats available

The AA space is phantom, seats show as available on the search engine but then clicking through to try and confirm the booking gives an error message ( I used your date above as an example).

Happens quite a bit with the AA award search engine, when you think you've found a J award only to find it's phantom.

 

[appaz]

Conspiracy theory

The fact that you have to click a tiny "award flight" button to use your points properly, leaves many unsuspecting Qantas users spending far more points then they should - this is 100% deliberate

 

[SCM]

I also have been looking at reward fights to SIN, given their A380s and the wet leased dreamliners from Finair, you'd think there would be SOME availability - the real story here is that there isn't any.

Once again, very sloppy reward allowance from QF.

They should just do one points plane to Singapore every fortnight and Europe every other fortnight.

 

[appaz]

I also have been looking at reward fights to SIN, given their A380s and the wet leased dreamliners from Finair, you'd think there would be SOME availability - the real story here is that there isn't any.

Once again, very sloppy reward allowance from QF.

They should just do one points plane to Singapore every fortnight and Europe every other fortnight.

Qantas points never used to be this useless. I think losing Qatar to Velocity was probably the final nail.

What are people actually using QF points for these days? Once upon a time I booked 2x 280k J awards with Finnair, Qatar, Air Jordan, Cathay and more. I'd imagine piecing an itinerary like this would be next to impossible now

 

[Princess Fiona]

Qantas points never used to be this useless. I think losing Qatar to Velocity was probably the final nail.

What are people actually using QF points for these days? Once upon a time I booked 2x 280k J awards with Finnair, Qatar, Air Jordan, Cathay and more. I'd imagine piecing an itinerary like this would be next to impossible now

Flew a 318K J Award in 2023 and about to start another later this month.
Plenty of examples of successful bookings on this thread

One World Award

As others have stated the AA website is notorious for showing phantom availablilty. Not just on QF, also AY and a few others.

 

[Seat0B]

Flew a 318K J Award in 2023 and about to start another later this month.

Slightly off topic, but do you book this yourself directly on QF web site, or use a travel agent after you have worked out where you want to go, @Princess Fiona? Asking for a friend

 

[Princess Fiona]

Slightly off topic, but do you book this yourself directly on QF web site, or use a travel agent after you have worked out where you want to go, @Princess Fiona? Asking for a friend

My 2023 one was booked my myself online and subsequently tweaked by my TA.
The one I’m about to start was booked by my TA.

 

[RichardMEL]

Well @appaz Did you book the seats you wanted via AA? Or were they, as suggested, phantom and thus not a QF conspiracy?

 

[drron]

Though we have had the same experience with QF and AA.
No available awards for Mrsdrron as WP then I go to AA and can book and fly on QF.
This has happened more than once. Last time though was SYD - PER and again returning GET- PER- BNE all apart from the GET flight in J. This was April/May 2021.
And unlike QFF it was no extra points to add on the GET sector. I am LTP with AA.

 

[TheInsider]

The fact that you have to click a tiny "award flight" button to use your points properly, leaves many unsuspecting Qantas users spending far more points then they should - this is 100% deliberate

Clutching at straws here.
The same size as every other button.



Then it's even quite prominent on the normal 'cash' part of the website:

 

[appaz]

Clutching at straws here.
The same size as every other button.
View attachment 366441


Then it's even quite prominent on the normal 'cash' part of the website:

View attachment 366442
View attachment 366443

One shouldn't have to "be in the know" in order to not get fleeced. Points to pay should be an option when searching for a cash fare, completely misleading consumers when you click "Use Points" and are shown cash fares that you can pay with your points (at an exorbitant rate).

Why do you think this is the default search result? Why do you think you have to take additional steps to use your hard earned points correctly? Why not the other way round, show classic awards initially and let consumers click additional buttons to "pay with points" if no awards available

The setup is misleading and done entirely for profit

Post automatically merged: Jan 14, 2024

Well @appaz Did you book the seats you wanted via AA? Or were they, as suggested, phantom and thus not a QF conspiracy?

I'm not ready to confirm the booking yet and will need to transfer some points to AA to book 4 seats. I will try to book one seat when my dates are confirmed. If they are phantom awards then it makes sense, if I can make the booking the Qantas has a lot to answer for

 

[N860CR]

For what it’s worth, short notice availability was good for Feb and easy to find. I needed to get to Mumbai and over the space of 3 days in Feb had options on Malaysia and Sri Lankan. Also had good QF availability to HKG and MNL plus BA to SIN.

Usual luck of the draw stuff. Don’t think there’s any new conspiracy.